Only 1 in 17 scored highly for reading

ONLY one in 17 teenagers in Scotland is classed as a ‘top performer’ on reading skills by an international study.

Just 6 per cent are rated among the most able compared with an average 8 per cent for OECD countries and 10 per cent in England.

It emerged last month the SNP Government plans to scrap its own annual literacy and numeracy survey, fuelling claims ministers were attempting to mask educational failure.

Previous figures showed one in five Scots primary school leavers is functionally illiterate. The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) results unveiled this week covered the performance of 15-year-olds in reading, science and maths last year. They showed Scots pupils are outperformed on literacy by their peers in Slovenia and Vietnam.

Last night, Scottish Tory education spokesman Liz Smith said: ‘The overall PISA results are bad enough but so, too, are many of the details, most especially the fact only 6 per cent of teenagers are at the top level of literacy, which is stubbornly below the rate in England and many key competitor nations.’

The Scottish Government’s Scottish Survey of Literacy and Numeracy (SSLN) will be replaced after its last results are released in May 2017. It had recently highlighted a slump in maths skills and a growing poverty-based attainment gap. Nicola Sturgeon, who has vowed education will be her government’s top priority and unveiled plans to close the gap, was rebuked over the timing of the decision.

Former education director Keir Bloomer said: ‘It will be at least five years before trends will be apparent in the new information.’

Last night, Scottish Labour education spokesman Iain Gray said the SNP was ‘not so much moving the goalposts as dismantling them’ by ditching the survey.

A Scottish Government spokesman said: ‘The PISA reading statistics provide further evidence to support the reforms we are making to Scottish education.’